Thursday, June 30, 2011

Many Face's of King Kong **CAUTION EXPLICIT LANGUAGE IN VIDEO**

CrossFit is a sport. And just like many sports it is not simple. In most cases if you want to compete at a sport you have to practice, on a daily basis for AT LEAST a year. And from then on you get better and better as time goes on.

In the beginning you learn the basics. Once you have a solid foundation you start to learn the skills of the sport. And then usually you start to adapt the skills to yourself and your opponents, you start to feel how you fit into the sport and how you can adapt both yourself, and your understanding of the sport in order to optimize your results. All the while revisiting the basics every day. This can take years. And most of the time the adaptation, evolution, and curiosity people have with their sport never ends. Although it is usually tragically cut short because most of us eventually have to work 50plus hours for food, shelter and clothing.

My point is that a sport takes time. It takes dedication, and hard work. Most of the time there is pain, glory, boredom, restrictiveness, awkwardness, freedom, injuries, camaraderie, competition, etc… There are many ups and downs, sometimes you are on, sometimes you are off, sometimes you know what you are doing, sometimes you are being introduced to something that is turning your world upside down.

CrossFit is a sport made up of multiple sports. People spend their entire childhood learning gymnastics. Power lifters take 10 years to develop. Olympic Weightlifters are snagged up when they are 13 and are breaking records in their early twenties. Runners, Bikers, and Rowers, log many hours to find their tune and pacing.
-As CrossFitters we are trying to master all of the above in 3-6 workouts per week.

If you think about it, its overwhelming. But it is attainable. You just have to be realistic about it.

So when you are in class and you see people lifting a bar from the ground to overhead in one motion, or see someone lifting themselves from below the rings to above the rings,… and you can’t wrap your head around why you just can’t get it. I want you to know that person worked hard to gain that skill.

The stuff people are doing in CrossFit is pretty ridiculous. And hardly anyone walks into the gym and just “does” the movements we are expected to perform. Many of the members who are killing times on the whiteboard are doing so because they put in the time to set goals, work on them, and attain them.

On the whiteboard there is a place to put your GOALS and their is a place to put your PR’s for the month. I want to see those boards littered with people’s names, goals, and successes.

You are going to have short term goals and long term goals. Some you will not know how long it will take you to do,… but it is still a goal.

So whether its 10 double unders in a row,…. or 500lbs deadlift, write it down,… and do it!

I want to share a workout I did on Sunday. It is called King Kong. And it has been a major goal of mine set in my mind over a year ago.

Over a year. For that entire time I have been wishing I could do this workout. It started when I saw Josh Everett do it in a video:

At the time I believe my max dead lift was mid 300s. I could do muscle ups, but not good, my squat clean form was hit or miss and I didn’t control any of it, and hand stand pushups were hard. This workout was IMPOSSIBLE to me.

But I still wanted to do it.

About 7 months ago I dead lifted 455lbs in a competition. I have never lifted more than that. I believe at that time my max squat clean was around 265lbs. And of course my body weight movements have improved. But the workout called for 3 deadlifts at my 1 rep max, and 9 squat cleans at just under my max.

It wasn’t till recently that I felt confident to do it. My cleans have gotten stronger, and I just hoped my deadlift has also…. On Sunday I just decided it was time to attempt. My form gets a little sloppy, and my time isn’t world class,… but I did it. And now that workout is mine.

Josh E. makes it look easy. I struggled through it. Of course the next time I do it I will have a target time I would want to hit (under 3:00). But the point is that that one goal of mine took a lot of dedication. I had to gradually get myself to a point where I was ready to attempt and succeed.

Everything in CrossFit is like this. Things will not come easy. They will come from you, and the more and more you can do the more and more you will attain. The results you will attain in CrossFit are exponential (more and more rapid), the ride is amazing, you decide how fast you want to go….

Awesome article!!! Practice, practice, practice!!!

Here are a few other faces of the "Kong":

Then there is the totally insane! How about a 20 minute AMRAP of King Kong starring Mikko Salo!!! Watch his form on his squat cleans. Arms stay straight till last possible moment and his triple extension is awesome.

What Are Triple Extension Movements?

Triple Extension Movements involve three majors joints: hip, knee, and ankle. These three joints, when moved from the flexed to extended position, create the explosiveness needed to fire off the line of scrimmage. These movements consist of exercises that apply force with the feet against the ground. Exercises that produce this force are: Cleans (Power & Hang), Snatches (Power & Hang), Clean & Jerk, and Squats. Building up the lower torso is the equivalent to the foundation on a house. All the force, speed and explosiveness required for sport can be attributed to Triple Extension Movements.
Extension movements make up the main factor of explosive strength, which is the greatest amount of force in a specific time frame. This is the most important piece of the puzzle for speed-strength training. Speed-strength training is a combination of maximum speed and maximum strength, when combined produce a tremendous amount of force. This force is what we want on the playing field when our foot hits the ground.